No abstract

The increasing proportion of persons living alone has come to be emblematic in many ways of modern Western societies because it represents the importance conceded to the individual and to individual goals at the expense, basically, of the family. Solo living has been interpreted within the context of changing values and preferences, changing personal and conjugal realities, and the changing work contexts so often associated with the Second Demographic Transition. We know little about patterns and trends in living alone over the life course in much of the world because most research to date has concentrated on regional and national portrayals or on living arrangements in later life. This study provides a systematic look at the differences in living alone by age and sex in 113 countries. Our aim is to understand the extent to which behavior differs around the world and the implications this has for society. We also examine the relationship between trends in living alone and levels of human development. Results are taken from three massive datasets: census and survey microdata from IPUMS‐international, Demographic Health Surveys, and EU‐Labor Force Surveys.

POSICIÓN EN EL HOGAR Y GÉNERO.Desigualdades en la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud entre la población adulta en España Copyright: @2015 CSIC. Este artículo de acceso abierto distribuido bajo los terminos de la licencia Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (by-cn) Spain 3. ResumenEste artículo explora la asociación entre la posición en el hogar y la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud (CVRS) entre la población de 30-64 años residente en España (N=13.258) con una perspectiva de género. Se utilizan modelos multivariables de regresión lineal independientes según sexo a partir de la muestra española de la Encuesta Europea de Salud de 2009 incluyendo las siguientes variables de control: edad, relación con la actividad, nivel educativo, capital social, nacionalidad y variables de salud objetiva. Los resultados muestran que la posición en el hogar es más determinante sobre la CVRS que los indicadores de estatus individual entre la población femenina, lo que no ocurre entre la población masculina. La monoparentalidad es la posición del hogar asociada a una peor CVRS, penalizando en mayor medida a las mujeres. Entre los hombres, la CVRS se muestra más sensible a la convivencia o no en pareja. Se discutirán, pues, los determinantes relacionados con el género. PalabRas claveCalidad de vida; Determinantes sociales de la salud; Género; Hogar. abstRactThis paper applies a gender perspective to explore the relationship between the position of individuals within the household and the health-related quality of life (CVRS) among the population aged 30 to 64 living in Spain (N=13.258). Microdata from the Spanish sample of the European Health Survey of 2009 are utilized for this purpose. Multivariate linear regression models for males and females are run which include the following controllers: age, labor status, educational level, social capital, nationality and variables approaching individuals' objective health. Results show that, among females, the position within the household is more influential on CVRS than some other individual characteristics. This is not the case among males. One-parent family is the household position that penalize CVRS the most which stands especially for females. Among males, living (or not) in couple is the most influential factor on CVRS. Gender-related determinants are discussed.

The association between health and partnership status is a growing concern within the social sciences. Some partnership situations exhibit positive effects on health, while partnership breakdowns display negative impacts. However, case studies show that these associations may change with age, due to potential sources of heterogeneity within a population. The current analysis explored this association over the adult life course (ages 30-64) of Europeans aged 50 years and older based on retrospective information on health and partnership from SHARELIFE ( = 23,535 after data screening). The data allowed us to control for socio-demographic covariates as well as for individual infirmity, measured by childhood health. We also considered contextual survival selection effects by comparing 13 European countries for which pre-adult mortality levels largely differed among the cohorts involved (1907-1958). Discrete-time hazard analyses examined the risk of suffering from a major episode of poor health (self-reported) in adulthood as a function of partnership history, using two approaches: a pooled model and country-specific models. The results revealed no differences between those who lived with a partner (first union) and single individuals in terms of the retrospective hazards of poor health. We hypothesize that this result stems from the cumulative effect of survival selection on individuals in advanced ages according to partnership status. The results also partially point to the plausibility of a contextual survival selection, which should be confirmed by further research based on additional health indicators.

A partir de una explotación de los datos de la Encuesta Sociodemográfica de 1991, se presentan los resultados principales de una investigación en curso sobre los determinantes sociodemográficos del divorcio en España. Se tratará de explicar la propensión a la ruptura de una primera unión, configurada como variable dependiente, en función de un conjunto de covariables que harán referencia a características de la familia de origen, a características individuales y, por último, a las características de la unión. Se medirá el efecto de estas covariables sobre la probabilidad de la experiencia de una persona en la disolución de su primera unión, con el objetivo de realizar una primera aproximación al perfil sociodemográfico de la separación y el divorcio en España. El análisis realizado utiliza un modelo de azar de regresión logística discreto.